Chelsea knows I was right to turn her in for looting and she has forgiven me

Monday 14 November 2011 11:25 BST

The mother of an Olympics ambassador jailed for looting during the London riots said today her daughter has forgiven her for reporting her to police.

Talented athlete Chelsea Ives, 18, has started a two-year sentence for criminal damage and burglary after she was seen throwing bricks and missiles.

She had boasted of having the "best day ever" on Facebook after her violent rampage, but her mother Adrienne turned her in after spotting her on television damaging a police car, forcing two officers to flee.

Speaking for the first time since the sentencing last week, Mrs Ives, 47, spoke of her daughter's fear about life in a young offenders' institution but refused to deflect blame from the teenager.

She told the Standard she and her husband Roger, 54, were fully supporting their daughter, and although the decision to hand her in was "gut-wrenching", the teenager now understood it was the right thing to do.

"Anyone going to prison to serve time will be scared," she said. "It has been a whirlwind. There has not been much time to assess it. We are going to support her. She is still our daughter, so it goes without saying.

"Resentment was there but she has realised it was the best course of action. Hopefully it has stopped her going down a road she should not go down, and if other parents have done the same thing, let's hope so (for their children) as well."

Ives, from Leytonstone, who met Games chief Sebastian Coe and Mayor Boris Johnson in her role as Waltham Forest Council youth Olympic ambassador - a role she has now lost - admitted burglary, damaging a marked BMW police car and two counts of violent disorder.

Her mother, a medical secretary and fundraiser, was at home with her husband watching the scenes of anarchy unfold on television on August 7. She said when she spotted her daughter she knew she had to act.